Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Reunions and farewells

Have you ever volunteered to plan something and then really regretted doing so, only to REALLY be glad that you did?!?!?! Well, i blame my absenteeism here in the blogging world on the fact that from about January 5th until April 5th i spent almost all of my "computer time" planning a reunion for all 500+ missionaries that were with me 7-10 years ago in Santiago, Chile. (We didn't have emails back then, so it was quite the challenge contacting everyone!!) But, with the help of many fellow missionaries, we pulled off a really successful reunion. Our mission president and wife, John and Lexine Hadfield were there from California, and we even had one missionary come from Argentina!! There was a fun slide show, yummy food, tons of catching up, and most importantly, a great turnout.

All the missionaries singing our "mission song"

Me and Melissa Quinn - my last companion in Chile

Argentine missionary with the Hadfields

You can't imagine the shock and sadness I felt when I found out the morning of April 14th, only 9 days after our reunion, that our President, John C. Hadfield, had passed away. He was only 57 years old, and they still don't know the cause. He was an exceptional leader to me as a missionary, and he was very true to what he believed. I feel very grateful (in spite of all the complaining I did) that I volunteered to plan that missionary reunion. All of us who were there feel so fortunate that we were able to see our president, catch up, and tell him of the difference he, and our missions, had made in our lives. I will miss him dearly.

7 comments:

You did a great job planning the reunion! I am sure President just loved it. It was a good way for us to remember him by. He will be greatly missed. We went to his funeral in Utah. It was a very nice service. We sure missed you! He will be greatly missed. How are you doing? I hope that you are doing well.

Good job on the reunion. Very impressive you were able to pull if off without e-mail addresses and being pregnant. I am so sorry to hear about your mission president. What a blessing to have him at the reunion.

Em, do you remember an elder in your mission named Sean Barney? I was just reading his wife's blog (I am good friends with her sis in law - and they were all in Hawaii when I was there) and there was a little tribute to Sean's mission pres that had passed away, plus a a bit about attending a mission reunion. Just so happens, that it was your miss. pres. too!!! So, do you remember Sean Barney?